Manufacturing Logistics: Friction or Symbiosis
At the interface between the Manufacturing production and the boundary gate, Logistics is involved which can cause friction or symbiosis.
The two disciplines have different drivers but are they equal partners?
This article examines some of the activities from an automation perspective.
Why is Automation Important?
The manufacturing process is about raw materials and resources as input, resulting in finished goods and some waste (hopefully minimal) as outputs.
To operate, manufacturers need logistics to deliver the supplies and to collect the products for shipment to customers.
Conceptually a simple diagram as shown but when scale and complexity are considered the details of daily operations can be a challenge.
The physical operations with warehouses, lorries, forklift trucks, pallets, cages, etc, all contribute to the daily movements and they are supported / controlled by the office “Paper Work” (hopefully all digital).
For many manufacturing is synonymous with the volume production of the same or similar items. It means repetition which leads to tools, machinery and automation.
In logistics, it is about keeping the wheels turning to move goods. Regular shipments provide the core workload. Operating to schedule.
The assets of both manufacturers and logistic providers need to well used to avoid wasted capacity.
Yes, new arrangements are made but there is a lot of “Routine” / “Regular” / “Scheduled” activity that is the core of daily work – the ideal activity that can be automated.
Beyond Physical Automation
Many people understand and recognise the need to automate the physical handling of goods, but how many consider the manual work undertaken in office environments. The work which co-ordinates and controls the physical movements.
Manual work undertaken on computer systems, is still manual work.
Yes, it is moving “Data” not heavy objects, but it can be just as repetitive and time consuming.
The office work covers finance, purchasing, planning, operations, etc.
Automating the office work, can release the knowledgeable workers to add more value than performing “admin” type tasks.
Beyond the Simple Product
Raw Materials are shipped in specific quantities, but usage in a BOM (Bill of Materials) may not be in the same ratio. This leads to different ordering frequencies for materials. This results in storage costs either internally or at a distributor or at a logistics provider in the supply chain.
Packaging is used in the supply of the goods and if not re-usable become waste in the process, or the packaging may generate a reverse logistics requirement to ship empty containers back to source material suppliers.
Packaging supplies need to part of the BOM to enable the finished products to be shipped.
Lean Manufacturing and Lean Logistics are both focussed on reducing wait times, optimising the use of resources and reducing waste. The scope can include office work.
Packaging management is often another repetitive process that is subject to compliance requirements and can be suitable for automation.
Beyond the gate – Things in motion
Manufacturing can be adopting a Make to Stock (The push system) or a Make to Order (The pull system) as the core approach.
Whichever approach, there can be an emphasis on “Just In Time” logistics or the use of “On-site Stock” to achieve the production operations.
As materials and products move across supply chains, there can be a lot of items “On Route”, “At Port”, “at Distribution Warehouses”, “Out for Deliver”. The situation is not static.
As issues arise, there is often a need to update lots of information to reflect the changes from the dynamic movements that occur every day in logistics.
The updates often involve a lot of repetition in terms of data changes and notifications. Such activity can be suitable for automation.
Beyond the Good Delivery – There are Returns
In the real world the perfect delivery of product can still result in challenges.
There can be damage that occurs in transit, requiring replacements to be sent and damaged goods to be collected.
There can be products that fault or not acceptable in some way to the customer, so that they get returned.
There can be scenarios where it is not the whole product and a despatch of a “Spare Part” can resolve the issue.
Manufacturing logistics has to be able to address each of these scenarios, which means more business processes but hopefully the volume is small scale and therefore not suitable for automation.
The Tension
· Production just want to manufacture.
· Logistics just want to move the goods.
Avoiding friction and getting the symbiosis of the two aspects is quite a challenge. People can use systems to help, automation can provide the time for people to think, but it is a challenging role delivering manufacturing logistics for good operations.
· Quantity drives the benefits from Automation.
· Automation delivers Consistency, maintaining Quality.
For more information on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as well as Agentic Automation and the journey to implement automation please see our website: https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/.
Manager’s Guide to Automation: https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/managers-guide-to-automation-using-software-robots/
#businessbeyondautomation
Article Author
David Martin
Managing Director, Ether Solutions
https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/
